Alyssa Johnson

Promoting a Positive Learning Environment

I observed a video clip from 11/13/14 where I was creating a positive learning
environment for the students to share character ideas. Every student had very different ideas
when we first started trying to decide what our character would look like. I was facilitating an
environment where the students felt comfortable sharing their ideas and compromising with
others.
Bruner believes educators should provide a stimulating environment where student are
intrinsically motivated to learn. We achieved this by creating and drawing our own character
with a funny and interesting background and shared it with the class. They loved the character
and were very excited to make their own.
At first the students could not agree upon a character idea and started to argue about it.
I observed that animals were a common theme in the suggestions, so I asked if everyone
wanted to create an animal to try and help guide them to an agreement. They said yes and
started to discuss different animals when someone suggested a phoenix. I let them come to
agreements themselves, but stepped in to try and show similarities between their ideas.
I also had to step in when Jacob told Matt one of his ideas were lame when Matt had a
different idea than the rest of the group. I told Jacob that it not the way we tell others that we

dont like their ideas and it is mean to do so. I wanted all the students to feel as though their
ideas were being heard and respected.

Engaging Students in Learning

I observed a video clip that illustrated engaging the students learning by questioning
them about why we would write music and what communication is. We had been scaffolding
their learning by showing them that music can communicate ideas and remind you of certain
characters or places. When beginning to talk about notating music, we asked why someone
would do that. Students said to share ideas, and we also guided them to define communicate
for us and how we might do that in music.
Andrew Gregory is an ethnomusicologist who studied and defined the roles of music in
society. Communication is one of these roles, and the one we based our project off of. We used
this lesson to connect those two ideas to the students, with prior scaffolding to teach how
music communicates ideas. We also had them define as a group what universal meant and
that it means a way to communicate with someone anywhere in the world.
The students were very engaged in this process because they were creating their own
knowledge through the definitions created by themselves and their peers, following guided
questions. This is an important idea in a constructivist learning approach because they are
forming knowledge for themselves and relating it to their own lives and experiences.

After defining universal and connecting it to standard notation, I asked why someone
would want to create a universal notation everyone could read. A student answered by relating
it to an Arthur book she read where people talking in other languages couldnt understand each
other, and said things arent as fun if you cant share it with others. This was a great connection
she made from her personal life to music as communication and the importance of that role.
I observed another video clip where we were deciding which types of notation we
would use for our contrasting traits for our characters. I asked the students which type of
notation they thought represented the word fierce and I had two students answer for both
standard and invented notation. I questioned them on their reasoning for each one and how
they thought we could express that trait in music. We decided on standard notation for fierce,
and furthered the discussion by composing the piece and talking about how the trait was
represented in the music.

Deepening Student Learning During Instruction

I observed a video clip in which we deepened the students learning by teaching them
how to create measures with groups of four beats in standard notation. We reviewed the
length of notes and created two measures of four beats as a class. Students then came up to
the board to create examples for themselves.
Wiggins and McTighe created the educational tool Understanding by Design (UbD) and
advocate that students demonstrate genuine understanding when they express learning
through explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge.

We asked them to define different beat values for us and they explained where they
would put the bar lines and why. A student also applied their knowledge on the Smartboard
and created two measures on his own. They also later self-reflected by fixing their compositions
that wouldnt work with 4 beat measures.
By explaining and demonstrating for the class, and having the class as a group create
four beat measures, their learning and understanding was deepened. The students were
actively involved in the process and created the knowledge for themselves with guidance. We
assessed this knowledge by their compositions in their group, which was later performed.
We followed a UbD approach by designing backward with related stages. Our desired
result for the students is to understand that music is a form of communication, ideas can be
represented and performed in music, and be able to compose, notate, and perform music in a
small ensemble. We have been able to assess students through lessons, and have been
scaffolding their learning and making sure they are understanding the smaller aspects of the
larger concept. This was a lesson designed to deepen students learning before starting the
larger project in which students would compose, notate, and perform their own small
composition.

Analyzing Teaching
For our final project, the other teachers and I were each responsible for a small group of
students in the class. I had one boy, Jacob, who was often disruptive and unfocused. He is very

intelligent, but gets distracted easily and does not always want to participate. I had to plan for
how I would respond to Jacob and how I would support and engage his learning.
I observed a video clip in which my group was practicing their invented notation
composition. Earlier in the lesson, Jacob seemed disinterested and was not participating in the
discussion of what our symbols meant. After we played our composition he told me that he
didnt think it sounded right. I asked him why he thought that, and he responded that he didnt
think it represented fierce. I explained to him that the trait for our invented notation was
actually caring and he said that made more sense to him and seemed to connect to the
composition a little more.
Jacqueline Brooks is a professor at Hofstra University, and has written several books on
the dynamics of teaching and learning, with a focus on cognitive development and concept
formation. Her philosophy for teaching requires that teachers seek and value their students
point of view, and classroom activities challenge students suppositions. In the clip I described,
listening to Jacobs opinion on the composition and having a discussion about it helped him
understand and relate to it better.
To further engage Jacobs learning, I wish I would have put him in more leadership
positions with specific roles and tasks. He may not get this opportunity often, and it would have
reinforced to him that I believe in his abilities and potential. I also would have taken more
instances where he wanted to say something that I considered disruptive, and taken the time to
listen and talk with him as I did in the clip I observed.

I think these changes would have improved Jacobs learning and make him more
engaged. I might be challenging his expectations and what he is used to by putting him in more
leadership positions. It might make him interested in the role and want to perform well at it. It
is also always beneficial to listen to students as much as possible, especially those who crave
attention.